TVXQ rakes in over $92 million in overseas concert revenues

Why do K-pop groups keep going to Japan for promotions? Well, the answer is quite simple: because promoting in Japan is very lucrative.

Take TVXQ for example. TVXQ will be continuing onward with their 5-dome tour in Japan until mid-August. In all, they will perform 18 times in front of an audience of 850,000 people. At an average cost of 120,000 KRW (approximately $109 USD) per ticket, the revenue from all the tickets sold will add up to 102,000,000,000 KRW (approximately $92.6 million USD).

But it’s not just limited to Japan where idols can make money. TVXQ brought in 570,000 fans for their world tour. Super Junior and SHINee each brought in 280,000 and 250,000 respectively during their Asia tour, and the SM Town concerts also brought in an additional 300,000 fans last year. Super Junior is expected to be bringing even more since they’ve started their world tour and recently wrapped up a successful run in South America. SM Entertainment stated, “This year, the number of audience members (for our concerts) up to this point already matches the number of audience members we had for the whole of 2012. If we combine all the concerts scheduled until the end of the year, the attendance numbers will increase by at least 50%.”

Of course, it’s not just SM Entertainment going overseas – YG Entertainment has their own firm grasp on overseas concerts. G-Dragon is going on a solo world tour with 25 dates in front of 550,000 fans. Daesung is also bringing in an audience of 100,000 fans with his own 25 concerts. Not only that, Psyis preparing a world tour with agencies in America, and they said, “Since it’s his first world tour, everyone is looking forward to it.”

JYP Entertainment‘s 2PM, DSP Media‘s KARA, and FNC Entertainment‘s CNBLUE are also bringing in similar results. K-Pop experts have predicted that revenue from overseas concert will be increasing 20% this year as compared to last year. Overseas concerts bring in much more profit compared to album and digital sales. Last year, profits from K-pop exports was an estimated amount of $235,000,000 USD, 60% of which came from concerts. Also, there’s additional revenue as big concerts usually bring in over 2,000,000,000 KRW (approximately $1.8 million USD) in sales of merchandise and other concert goods.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism will be building a concert venue in Ilsan’s Hallyu World that can seat up to 15,000 people in 2016. Through Hallyu World, they hope to boost tourism and attract overseas visitors to visit Korea.